On Narendra Modi and the hottest place in hell

This post has been a long time coming. What finally triggered it was a call I had with Rajesh Jain last week.. Rajesh quoted Dante to me, while asking where do I stand on Sh Narendra Modi. He recalled these lines from the Inferno, “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality”.

A lot has been written by numerous commentators on why Modi deserves support. These commentators span the spectrum from economists (Arvind Panagariya) to spiritual leaders with mass following (Swami Ramdev) and include political leaders, journalists & of course, bloggers. One of them, particularly articulate ( and forthright), is Dr Atanu Dey. This is what he wrote on why people should support Modi:

Anyone who wants India to change tack and progress..recognizes that the best we have is Modi. Of course, Modi is not perfect. No mortal is. But he is the best we have got.. I am convinced that no one else in India has what it takes to bring about the change that India needs.

By the way, Atanu is anything but a blind BJP-Bhakta. Here is his damning indictment of the BJP, from an article written barely a few weeks back:

I claim that the BJP and the Congress are colluding. Which means that they are not in competition. Another way to state that is to say that they are mostly indistinguishable.

Congress has been making major messes (to put it mildly) and still is in business. Why? Because the BJP does not provide it with any incentive to be any better. Ergo, it is because the BJP is bad that the Congress is bad. If the BJP had been good, the first scam by the Congress and it would have been history. But instead, we have scams by the dozens and yet the Congress does not die.

The Congress survives because the BJP lets it.

Almost three years ago, a close friend (and a BJP member) had asked me my views on Modi. This was early 2010 and the BJP was still recovering from its loss in the elections. I said to him the BJP desperately needs someone like Modi. But the old guard will oppose him tooth-and-nail. The-powers-that-be will never let him lead from the front. I had hinted at such opposition as recently as last year in a couple of tweets and had a bet against such a possibility with another friend (and ardent Modi supporter). This opposition to Modi within the BJP was usually the clincher in any argument on why most of us fighting for reform/change could not support the BJP. I lost that bet.

Today, Modi not only heads the BJP’s campaign committee, he is “the” leader of the party in all but name. Is that something that should prompt a re-think? I believe so. Why? Because, as Atanu puts it (emphasis added),

…Modi is the joker in the pack. He is a BJP party guy but really he is the party-pooper. He is the spoiler in the nice little game that the BJP leaders are playing with the leaders of the Congress. They want him to come and spoil the game as much as they want a hole in their heads. In other words, the Congress and the BJP have an interest in colluding to torpedo Modi.

…his (Modi) economics is the opposite of what the Nagpur Gurukul of Swadeshi, Xenophobia and Frugalism preaches. In the BJP today, he is the only leader willing to say anything modern or entrepreneurial: less government and more governance is now his slogan, and refreshing

…A lot of urban middle class and entrepreneurial India adores him because of his Gujarat model of economics. That hasn’t been his party’s larger view lately.

It thus seems entirely plausible that one might support Modi and oppose the BJP. In fact, it would be quite natural, precisely because most of the BJP is quite unlike Modi.

But still, how do I reconcile my support to Modi with my publicly stated opposition to the BJP & its “collusion” with the rotten system, so eloquently described by Atanu?

Here I go back to Rajesh Jain’s quote and the apt phrase: “..times of great moral crisis“. I believe we are suffering the worst government India has ever had since 1947. I believe a UPA-III would be untold disaster for India. A disaster for each of us who believes in freedoms, liberty and equality of opportunities. A disaster for everyone who opposes socialism and the politics of entitlements, built on narratives of victim-hood. A disaster which might push India to a point of no-return.

UPA’s policies are an existential threat to India. The UPA must go. That is the only way the rest of us (fighting for systemic reform and change) will survive. And if we don’t win this battle, I am not sure we will be around for the “Long War“. We need to therefore re-group and consolidate around an alternative that appears to have the best chance of winning. We need to align around this alternative and offer support (which could be conditional), while maintaining our independence.

Only time will tell whether we were right or wrong. But there is only one man today who has a fighting chance of making Congress history. And I think it is time to give this man a chance. It is time to support this man. Time to say, NaMo for PM! Jai Hind, Jai Bharat!

Author

Shantanu Bhagwat (aka B Shantanu) is a political activist, advisor to start-ups, seed investor, one-time VC and ex-Indian Foreign Service officer.
Shantanu now devotes the major part of his time to political and systemic reform in India. He has been seriously involved in political activism since the last several years. He also occasionally conducts workshops on Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy.
A graduate in Computer Engineering, Shantanu holds an MBA from London Business School where he was a Chevening Scholar.
Shantanu is the author and publisher of one of India’s foremost blogs on politics, history, culture and religion, ||Satyameva Jayate||.
Follow him on Twitter http://twitter.com/satyamevajayate, facebook www.facebook.com/SatyamevaJayate.BShantanu, and YouTube http://youtube.com/JaiDharma.